France has upgraded its security threat level as hundreds of police hunted a gunman who shot three people dead and injured 12 others in a terror attack on Strasbourg's celebrated Christmas market on Tuesday evening.

Six hours after the gunman disappeared after firing at passers-by in the busy city centre, the interior minister, Christophe Castaner, said the government had raised the risk level to the highest category.

The move would strengthen border controls and bolster protection of Christmas markets and other events.

In a statement, Castaner said the gunman had opened fire in three different placesin the city before engaging in firefights with patrolling soldiers.

"He fought twice with our security forces," Castaner said.

French media reported the man, who was injured in one of the exchanges, then jumped in a taxi and disappeared.

Comment: He fled in a taxi??

Police immediately cut off major roads in and out of the city and launched a massive operation involving 350 police gendarmes and soldiers, as well as helicopters, to find him.French security services said they had identified the gunman as a 29-year-old born in Strasbourg, known to police and also on the "Fiche S" list of potential security threats.

French media reported that gendarmes had attempted to arrest the man for a separate crime at his home in the Neudorf district of south-east Strasbourg earlier on Tuesday. The suspect was not home, but officers reportedly found grenades in his apartment.

Shortly before 8pm local time, the man, armed with an automatic rifle, walked over one of the city's many bridges around the Grand Île toward the Christmas market, which attracts millions of visitors every year. Witnesses said the man fired a first volley of rounds and then walked down the street before opening fire again.

Local resident Yoann Bazard said he heard "two or three shots" and screams; and when he went to his window he saw people running. "After that I closed the shutters. Then I heard more shots, closer this time. There were two or three episodes like that ... As it got close, it was really shocking. There were a lot of screams."

Freelance journalist Camille Belsoeur said he was at a friend's apartment in the city centre and at first mistook the gunfire for firecrackers. "We opened the window. I saw a soldier firing shots, about 12 to 15 shots," he said.

He said other soldiers yelled for people to stay indoors and shouted "Go home! Go home!" to those outside.

One of the dead was said to be a Thai tourist who was shot in the head outside a restaurant. Staff and diners tried to save him but were unsuccessful. Six of the injured were reported to be in a critical condition.

The anti-terrorist section of the Paris prosecutor's office declared the incident to be an act of terrorism and announced an inquiry had been opened into "murder and attempted murder in relation to a criminal enterprise".

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, immediately held a crisis meeting at the interior ministry in Paris.

The gunman reportedly shot at soldiers patrolling as part of the nationwide Operation Sentinelle, the French military operation introduced in the aftermath of terrorist attacks in and around Paris in January 2015, and was injured when they fired back.

Comment: So a known criminal with grenades in his apartment evaded arrest and was on the loose earlier in the day before the shooting, with police apparently actively looking for him before the attack. Were the Operation Sentinel soldiers aware of this?

Police asked residents in the centre of Strasbourg to stay at home, bars and restaurants were ordered to close and not let customers leave. Hours after the shootings, thousands of people remained unable to leave the city centre, restaurants, bars, libraries, and other public buildings following police orders for everyone to stay off the streets. About 5,000 people were stuck inside the local sports stadium. The BBC reported the order was lifted in the early hours of Wednesday.

The European parliament, which is sitting in Strasbourg, was put on lockdown, and the parliament's safety awareness division sent a message to MEPs advising those dining in the city centre to "please stay inside and don't go out".

"[A] decision has been taken, as a precautionary measure, to close the European parliament building in Strasbourg. We ask you to stay calm and safe within [European parliament] premises," it read.

Later, Antonio Tajani, the president of the parliament, said it would not be '"intimidated" by terrorism.

Several MEPs in city centre restaurants reported hearing gunfire. The Yorkshire and Humber MEP Richard Corbett tweeted that he was dining in the city "where shots (were) fired". The restaurant was "not letting anyone in or out", he added.

Theresa May said she was "shocked and saddened" by the "terrible" attack in Strasbourg. "My thoughts are with all of those affected and with the French people," the British prime minister tweeted.

The local prefecture tweeted that people should avoid the area near the city's police headquarters and that all access to the A35 motorway bisecting the city was blocked.

Police in Germany said they were strengthening controls at the Franco-German border near Strasbourg. The police force of Baden-Württemberg, a state in south-west Germany bordering Strasbourg, tweeted they were taking the extra measures at the border because of the shooting. The transnational tramway between France and Germany was suspended.

In the early hours of Wednesday, local prefect Roland Ries announced the Christmas market would be closed on Wednesday and all local cultural events cancelled.

France remains on high alert after suffering a wave of attacks commissioned or inspired by Islamic State militants in 2015 and 2016, which killed more than 200 people.

Strasbourg's Christmas market, which started in 1570, is one of France's most popular seasonal events. The "Grande Ile" where the market is held is surrounded by water, on one side the main channel of the River Ill and the other by the Canal du Faux-Rempart, is accessible only by bridges.

Since the Paris terrorist attacks in 2015, the event has been held under high security. Access to the area is controlled and visitors bags are searched. Vehicles are banned from the area.

Comment: And yet the shooter was somehow able to enter the area with an automatic rifle and leave by taxi?

In 2016, a truck was deliberately driven into the Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people and injuring 56 others. The perpetrator, Anis Amri, a Tunisian who had failed to gain asylum in Germany, was killed four days later in a shootout with police near Milan in Italy.

The attack comes during a period of intense tension across France after four weeks of civil unrest by anti-government protesters from the gilets jaunes movement.

Authorities meanwhile were continuing to search for the suspect who is on a terrorist watch list and whose home police had raided earlier in the day in a burglary probe.

The shooting took place shortly before 8 p.m. local time (2 p.m. ET) near a Christmas market in Strasbourg, France, that attracts millions of tourists every year. Strasbourg is on the German border.

The suspect fled and engaged in a firefight with police between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. local time, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner. He said the suspect has a record in France and Germany for common crimes.

A prosecutor said earlier that officers are searching for the suspect for alleged criminal association with a terrorist group and attempted assassination.

Prior to the shooting Tuesday, police raided the suspect's home in connection to a burglary probe. The suspect wasn't there but resurfaced that night at the perimeter of the Christmas market when shots rang out, police said.

France's counterterrorism unit has opened an investigation into the shooting incident, a prosecutor told NBC News.

Morten Løkkegaard, a Danish politician and member of the European Parliament, which has one of its three locations in Strasbourg, told Euronews that he was on lockdown inside the Parliament building.

"The whole Parliament has been locked while the police are investigating this, so I think we will spend some hours here," Løkkegaard said. "Hundreds of people are still working in the Parliament at this time of the day."

Axel Schouteten, manager of a McDonald's in Place Kieber, said he was sheltering in place inside the restaurant with approximately 80 people, including families and children.

"I was in the back of the restaurant when I heard gunshots. I think it was the sound of an automatic weapon. There was a big movement of the crowd and then a few minutes later, I closed the doors, and saw three bodies on the ground," he said, adding that he didn't know if the people he saw were dead or alive.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson said the United States condemns "in the strongest terms this horrific attack" and that "our thoughts are with the family and friends of those affected."

The State Department stands ready to provide all possible consular assistance should it become aware of any affected American citizens, the spokesperson said.

Inevitable threat? Strasbourg gunman was on terror watch list, had grenades at home

The gunman who shot multiple victims in Strasbourg had previously been convicted and was known to French intelligence as a possible 'security risk,' yet managed to slip through the cracks despite tightened security across France.

"The author of these acts, listed as a security threat, had been sought by police," the regional prefecture confirmed. Yet he has managed to escape arrest earlier in the day, before carrying out the attack near the Christmas market at around 8pm on Tuesday evening.

"There are so many people that are involved around the edges of this sort of terrorism if this is what it turns out to be, that you can't keep any sort of meaningful surveillance on them. Even just monitoring the use of communications and social media would be too much," Peter Kirkham, former London police inspector, told RT.

Aren't the security services regularly claiming to have 'foiled' terrorist networks thanks to their increased surveillance on ordinary citizens?

Despite tight security measures introduced by the French security forces across public holiday venues in the country, Christmas markets remain "attractive" soft targets. Strasbourg has since banned assemblies of people, to assist the security forces in tracking down their suspect.

Which will mean no more protests against government corruption by members of the legitimate Yellow Vest movement.

When you've got a large area of public space it is almost impossible to keep it totally free of weapons, especially if it is a temporary event.

The Strasbourg attack comes amid a major security presence across France, which has been gripped by the Yellow Vest protests over the past weeks. The sheer volume of work handled by the security services during the holiday season could have allowed the shooter to slip through the security cracks, Philip Ingram, a former senior military intelligence officer, told RT.

If we're going to protect the freedoms that we enjoy as part of society there's almost an inevitability of a level of terrorism that is going to come in there.

"The security forces have to be right 100 percent of the time and, remember, in France at the moment they are distracted with the Yellow Vest protests that are going on," Ingram said.

So, it's not the fault of the security services that the attacker 'slipped through', it's the fault of the Yellow Vests??

"There has been a lot of unrest in France over the last few weeks, so it would be early to call it a terrorist incident," Ingram noted, as the French counter-terrorism prosecutor has opened an investigation into the incident.

The attack left two people dead and and at least a dozen wounded. The suspect, swiftly identified on surveillance and video recordings, was known for his criminal activities. Authorities believe their target is listed on the 'Fiche S' list of potential security threats, was born in February 1989 in Strasbourg and may have been radicalized only recently. He was to be arrested Tuesday morning in a homicide-robbery case, yet when the investigators arrived at his home, he was not there. Grenades were found during the search, according to French media.

"If this person was recognized by the French secret service as a threat, he should have been put in jail right away," Denis Franceskin, a representative of the French National Rally political party in the US, told RT. "This guy was totally free to go anywhere. And this is a big problem. We have thousands of people that are under the S-file in France and our government is doing nothing."

"Certainly, there was a relationship to what the authorities were doing and the fact that he was on a list...and him going out and doing this," defense analyst Ivan Eland told RT. "They thought he was involved in some sort of robbery last summer and they had raided his house when he wasn't there, and therefore this could have triggered him to do this."

The city of Strasbourg was subject to a "reinforced grid," French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said on Tuesday night, hours after the attack on the market left two people dead and 14 others injured. "We are currently in a reinforced vigipirate stance," he said, noting that demonstrations are now banned in the city to allow a "total" police mobilization to ensure public safety.

Announcing that protests and public demonstrations have been temporarily banned in the city, the minister explained this would allow the police to "totally mobilize" to ensure public safety.

"All assemblies, either stationary or as a march (cortege), are banned until the order is rescinded. Anyone in breach of the order will be subject to the penalties provided-for by law," Strasbourg authorities said in the official notice of the protest assembly ban, issued immediately after Castaner's statement.

Additional resources are being deployed to Strasbourg to help local units engage in a search for the suspect. More than 350 policemen and gendarmes were hunting down the attacker on Tuesday night. They were supported by helicopters and members of the RAID, the BRI and Opération Sentinelle forces, the minister said.

[...]

The government raised France's national security alert threat (Vigipirate) to "emergency attack" level. As an additional security measure boost, Paris plans to allocate extra resources to reinforce border control and ensure extra protection at Christmas markets across France.

Tuesday's shooting comes at a time when French security forces are overstretched in dealing with the anti-government demonstrations that have gripped the country for weeks. Paris deployed some 90,000 police officers across the country last weekend to deal with the Yellow Vests rallies and, with authorities focused on containing violence at the weekly rallies, extremists like the Strasbourg shooter might try to exploit security holes, some security experts pointed out.

[...]

There's no evidence the shooter exploited any 'security holes', as noted above, the market already had high security in place and it was being patrolled by armed offices.

Two police officials have identified the suspected Strasbourg gunman as 29-year-old Cherif Chekatt.

One police source said Chekatt's criminal record mentions 25 judicial cases, including several serious cases of robbery.

The official said his apartment was searched by police on Tuesday morning - hours before the shooting - in an investigation for attempted murder. He was not at home at the time.

The two officials spoke anonymously because they were not allowed to speak publicly on an ongoing investigation.

The suspect was still on the run on Wednesday after he fired gunshots near the famous Christmas market of Strasbourg, killing three and wounding at least 13.

...

The suspected Strasbourg gunman was convicted of robbery in Germany in 2016 and sentenced to two years and three months in prison for breaking into a dental practice and a pharmacy.

The verdict from a district court in Singen, obtained by The Associated Press, says he was also sentenced to prison in France in 2008 and in Basel, Switzerland in 2013 for various robberies. News agency dpa reported that he was deported to France in 2017.

According to the verdict, the suspected attacker grew up with six siblings in Strasbourg, worked for local authorities after leaving school and had been unemployed since 2011. He said he had been traveling a lot and had already spent four years in prison. The German robberies took place in Mainz, near Frankfurt, in 2012 and in Engen, near the Swiss border, in 2016.

Isn't it odd that right after Macron gives some crumbs to the Yellow Vest's demands, a "terrorist attack" happens; in the home of the European Parliament, no less. Never waste a perfect opportunity to remind the people 'why they need us' (and centering the attack in the home of the EU Parliament should be a good signal to the rest of the EU who are thinking about joining the protests, for good measure).

UPDATE 12/12/18:

Four or five of Chekatt's relatives have been detained in connection with the shooting while the manhunt for the main suspect continues. Chekatt was born and raised in Strasbourg, and has served 2 years in jail for minor crimes. "According to the Daily Mail, Chekatt was sentenced to two years in prison in 2011 for a knife attack on a 16-year-old." Secretary of State for the Interior Ministry Laurent Nuñez insists that the attacks and manhunt are not a government plot to undermine the Yellow Vest protests:

"I don't understand how anybody could imagine this... We should call it for what it is - such ideas are obviously coming from conspiracy theorists," he told the media. "According to tweets and other remarks, such conspiracy theories flourish among the ranks of the 'Yellow Vests'. And this is yet another proof. Saying such things is, frankly speaking, disgraceful."

Remy Heitz, the Paris prosecutor, told a press conference on Wednesday: "Considering the target, his way of operating, his profile and the testimonies of those who heard him yell 'Allahu Akbar', the anti-terrorist police have been called into action," Heitz explained.

UPDATE 12/12/18 18:33:

According to a witness going by the name of DAAMACHE cedric, commenting on Rue89Strasbourgh.com, there were two shooters the journalist seems to dispute that it was him but cedric reassures him he was quizzed by a journalist and then reminds him that he told them there were two shooters (translate with Google plus editing for clarity):

DAAMACHE cedric

Thank you not to distort my testimony, nice journalist in the blue cap and the iphone.

I had a black coat with an orange hood, and you interviewed me at the exit of the checkout Republic.

So, to help set the record straight, it's never the blues (police) who told us to take refuge in bars.

The police never took care of the people, we just ran to the first shooter's fire, which was not far from the place you mentioned, to take refuge in Kleber, and there the second began shooting around Grande Rue.

Yes, I told you about automatic gunfire, but it was the Licorne force's responses,[_Opération Licorne - Wikipedia] and seriously I wonder how someone injured by Famas was able to get to Neudorf, where I live, and can access it.

In any case a pity to report false information to reassure about the support of the police, because there was zero support

Permalien
Answer

Published on 11/12/2018 at 23h41

Pierre France
Pierre answers to DAAMACHE cédric

Member of the editorial staff
Sir, we've never spoken before. This is another Cedric in the article (and probably another journalist since I was on the Halles side).

Permalien
Answer

Published on 12/12/2018 at 00:03
daamache cedric answers Pierre

Send me a picture of you to be sure;) The coincidence is very disturbing;)

No hate or whatever, just be right in what you report.

The cops did not take care of people ...

I answer because I'm sure it's me being in shock, when a reporter approached me at checkout.

Once again, funny coincidence, because my name is Cedric.

I love rue89 (website), so I allow myself to correct (you), and I told you there were two shooters ...

Reader Comments

Actually, There were too many coincidences. This day (11-12) the european parliament voted on two very sensitieve issues.

One issue, the only ‘one day work‘ for a migrant to get anywhere in Europe a lifetime benefit, and second issue, the possibility to get humanitarian asylum in any european ambassy in the World. This agreed to avoid the humantrafficking as said by them. I am afraid that in combination with ‘Tickets’ from Marrakesh this will lead to a catastrophe for every european citizen in near future.

The only way out is by boat. Start practice sailing this year, So you will have a choice when all conspiracies come together in the perfect storm.